RAV4 Hybrid vs Plug-In Hybrid For Brisbane Driving

Article by Downtown Toyota Brisbane’s Jon Wimhurst, Senior Toyota Sales Consultant

Brisbane is a good place to talk about this because people’s driving can be completely different from one customer to the next. Some people are just ducking around locally. Some are going from one side of town to the other. Some are sitting in traffic every day. Some are doing the coast on weekends, or heading up into the hinterland, or doing a mix of all of that depending on the week.

So I would not say, “This is the Brisbane answer.” I would ask, where are you actually driving? Because Springwood to Aspley is very different to school drop-off around the corner, and a run down to the Gold Coast on the weekend is different again.

That is why the choice between the RAV4 Hybrid and the RAV4 Plug-In Hybrid is not just about the badge on the back of the car. It is about what your normal week looks like, and whether the electric side of the Plug-In Hybrid is something you are actually going to use.

Short Brisbane driving is where the Plug-In Hybrid can work well

If you are doing shorter trips through the week, the Plug-In Hybrid could be a really good fit. School runs, work close to home, shops, local appointments, kids’ sport. That type of driving is where the electric side can become useful.

You might use electric through the week and keep the petrol hybrid side for longer drives. That is the nice part of it. You are not locked into one way of driving the car. You have options depending on what the day looks like.

For someone who is doing a lot of short suburban driving, the Plug-In Hybrid can start to make a lot of sense. You charge it at home, use the electric side for those normal daily trips, and then if the weekend looks different, you have still got the normal hybrid side there. You are not having to rethink the whole car just because you want to go a bit further.

Cross-city driving is different

If you are going from Springwood to Aspley and doing that twice a day, you are going to use the electric range quicker. That does not mean the Plug-In Hybrid is wrong. It just means you need to understand what you are asking the car to do.

That type of driving is where I would talk through the customer’s day properly. Are they charging at home each night? Are they able to top it up? Are they doing that drive every day, or only a couple of days a week? Are they sitting in traffic for a lot of it, or is it mostly moving once they get going?

If you are sitting in traffic, you are not using much while you are sitting still. Once you are moving, the range starts coming down. But then you can press normal mode and go back to hybrid driving. There is no interruption to the way you drive.

That is an important point. The Plug-In Hybrid does not suddenly become useless once the electric range has been used. You have still got petrol and hybrid there, so the car keeps doing what it needs to do.

The Hybrid is still the simple Brisbane choice

For a lot of Brisbane drivers, the normal RAV4 Hybrid will still be the easy choice. You do not plug it in. You do not think about charging. You just drive it, and the hybrid system does its job.

That suits a lot of people. If your week is unpredictable, or you do longer drives often, or you do not have an easy charging option, the normal Hybrid is still a very strong fit. You can run around town, sit in traffic, go across Brisbane, head away on the weekend, and you are not thinking about whether the car was plugged in last night.

That simplicity is a big part of why the RAV4 Hybrid has worked so well for so many customers. It is easy to live with, and for a lot of Brisbane drivers, easy is exactly what they want.

It depends on the week, not just the suburb

It depends on the week, not just the suburb. Are you doing school runs? Are you working close to home? Are you crossing the city every day? Are you heading to the coast every second weekend? Is the car sitting at home most of the week? Those are the questions that matter.

If the electric side lines up with your normal driving, the Plug-In Hybrid becomes very interesting. If it does not, the normal RAV4 Hybrid may still be the better answer.

That is why I would not just say, “Brisbane drivers should buy this one.” I would look at the actual use. What does Monday to Friday look like? What does the weekend look like? Where does the car sit during the day? Can you charge it at home? Once you answer those things, the choice usually becomes a lot clearer.

To find out more about your options with the Toyota RAV4 and Toyota Electrified contact Jon and the team at Brisbane’s Downtown Toyota today.